Church of the Good Shepherd
Possibly the most photographed church in New Zealand ;)
Possibly the most photographed church in New Zealand ;)
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Apr, 2016Views
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stephenbraunginn
February 04, 2017
Capturing a star covered night sky is a goal I have. Just simply inspiring.
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken at what is probably the most photographed church at Lake Tekapo, New Zealand. People flock to the Church of the Good Shephard any time of day, but I found it was an especially magical place at night, with clear skies above.Time
It was a beautifully clear night, so I just had to head down to the church. What I didn't know was that it had been a pretty dry week, and there were lawn sprinklers strategically placed around the church. And of course with a bunch of photographers dotted around the perimeter of the church grounds, it would have been rude to walk around with a torch, so an unlucky guess as to where the nearest sprinkler was left my trousers completely soaked. At least the camera equipment stayed dry though ;)Lighting
There was no light whatsoever, apart from that coming from passing cars' headlights. I had taken numerous photos of the Aurora Borealis before, but never tried astrophotography previously. The obvious thing to do was to use the same sort of settings I'd been using for the Northern Lights, however, I quickly learnt that astrophotography actually needs a lot more light.. That night was certainly a steep learning curve!Equipment
Sony A77 with Tamron 10-24mm wide angle lens, although I also took a few shots with my Sony 16-50mm kit lens, which lets in a little more light (f2.8)Inspiration
Prior to my holiday to New Zealand I'd been doing a lot of photography location research, and this church kept coming up at least as often as the famous Wanaka Lake tree. There was no argument, we had to go there, and it had to be a night time shot too, as Tekapo is in one of the world's rare Dark Sky Reserves.Editing
I mostly cleaned up the image noise caused by having to crank up the ISO way higher than I'm normally comfortable with. The Sony A77 does not cope with an ISO setting above 800, and of course I wanted to avoid star trailing as much as possible, so I think I ended up having to go as high as ISO6400In my camera bag
I always carry my A77 with its 16-50mm f2.8 SSM kit lens. It covers most of the photography I'm interested in, although I also take my Tamron 10-24mm and Sony 70-400mm with me a lot these days to allow for more wildlife and cityscape photography.Feedback
Learn how to photograph the night sky before heading out, and know your camera settings. It's no fun when you're trying to figure it all out when you're on location.
